Horror is a genre that seems to resonate strongly in the queer imagination. Here acclaimed queer horror writers discuss what drew them to this style of writing, their experiences of it and what it is in horror and the queer experience that can be so overpoweringly magnetic.
Heather Parry is a Glasgow-based writer and editor, originally from South Yorkshire. Her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. She is also the author of a short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You, and her first nonfiction book, Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, was released in 2024 as part of 404 Ink’s Inklings series. Her most recent novel is, Carrion Crow, to be followed by a short story collection in 2026. Heather writes the substack general observations on eggs, and lives in Glasgow with her partner and their cats, Ernesto and Fidel.
Mikaella Clements is an Australian writer based in Berlin. With her wife Onjuli Datta, she is the author of Feast While You Can (2024), “an exciting new hybrid horror-romance novel… [in which] queer desire is the cure, not the curse” (The New York Times Book Review) and The View Was Exhausting (2021), named “a perfect summer read” by Vogue. Her writing has also been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, TLS and more.
Onjuli Datta is a British writer based in Berlin. With her wife Mikaella Clements, she is the author of Feast While You Can (2024), “an exciting new hybrid horror-romance novel… [in which] queer desire is the cure, not the curse” (The New York Times Book Review) and The View Was Exhausting (2021), named “a perfect summer read” by Vogue. Her writing has also been published in Vulture, Salon, LitHub and more.
Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta are the co-authors of Feast While You Can (2024), “an exciting new hybrid horror-romance novel… [in which] queer desire is the cure, not the curse” (The New York Times Book Review) and The View Was Exhausting (2021), named “a perfect summer read” by Vogue. Their writing has also been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Vulture, TLS and more. They are married and live in Berlin.
Natalia Theodoridou is a queer and transmasculine author, game designer and writer whose stories have appeared in various magazines, including Kenyon Review, The Cincinnati Review and Strange Horizons. He won the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction and the 2022 Emerging Writer Award by Moniack Mhor and has been a finalist for the Nebula Award multiple times in the Novelette and Game Writing categories. He holds a PhD in Media and Cultural Studies from SOAS, University of London. Born in Greece, with roots in Georgia, Russia, and Turkey. He currently lives in Exeter, UK.
(Chair) Chloe Michelle Howarth was born in July 1996. She grew up in the West Cork countryside, which has served as an inspiration for her writing. She attended university at IADT in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, where she studied English, Media and Cultural Studies. Chloe currently lives in Brighton. Her debut novel, Sunburn, was shortlisted for the 2024 Polari First Book Prize, the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award at the British Book Awards and the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction and longlisted for the 2024 Diverse Book Awards. Her new book, Heap Earth Upon It, is out this year.
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